The Lord

"If you as a member of the bureaucracy do not participate in a decision, you are not going to carry that decision out with the alacrity, the efficiency and the effectiveness you would if you have participated. When you cut the bureaucracy out of your decisions and then foist your decisions, more or less out of the blue, on that bureaucracy, you can’t expect that bureaucracy to carry your decision out very well. And furthermore, if you’re not prepared to stop the feuding elements in that bureaucracy as they carry out your decision, you’re courting disaster."

Mayor: Cut Thumbs Off Graffiti Artists

I like the way this guy thinks. He's a good egg.

Over a month ago, I registered ljclassics, just for the hell of it. I quickly forgot about it, and left it to die like all the other bad community ideas and one-joke troll accounts I've had.

Then today, lima_pcp mentioned that there should be a community like debate_classics for politicsforum, and I realized I may as well try to put it to good use.

So ljclassics is now open for business. I predict a stillbirth.

On Thursday, I posted about the Geneva Conventions and whether or not they need to be updated to handle modern conflicts. I posted the same questions to liberal and conservatism, and not surprisingly, I didn't receive a single insightful response to my second question.

Also, I posted about fat people in debate. I made a funny.

This morning, this made me laugh. It came on the heels of this priceless exchange from yesterday.

I've had this journal for over four years now, and I have very little in it as far as actual content goes. For the most part, I use this journal to post and comment in various communities. So I've decided that I may as well start reproducing many of my community posts here in my journal. Since I dislike seeing the same posts repeatedly on my friends list, and many of you are in the same communities as I'm in, I'll spare you the double posting by linking to the original community entry.

Of course, I'll probably do this for a week or so, then get lazy and stop. Oh well.

Posted today in conservatism:

My tinfoil hat rant on the reaction to the Harriet Miers nomination.

Here in Virginia, we'll be electing a new Governor this November. The current Governor, Democrat Mark Warner, will leave office with a very high approval rating (around 75% right now), and will likely explore a bid for the Presidency in 2008. It seems his popularity stems from the fact that he came out our recent budget fight looking better than both the Democrats and the Republicans in the state assembly, and he managed not to fuck anything else up either. Even I can't find too many bad things to say about him.

The three main boobs who are running to replace him are Republican attorney general Jerry Kilgore, Democrat lt. Governor Tim Kaine, and worst of all, Republican turned Independent state senator Russ Potts, who lives in the same town as I do. Potts is a scumbag who has no chance of carrying his own hometown, much less a significant portion of the state vote. Kilgore has had a consistent lead over Kaine in the polls for some time now, and that probably won't change.

The election isn't what's got me pissed off, but the campaign commercials have highlighted an issue that pisses me off. That issue is education spending. Here in the US, we spend far too much on education. We get some of the worst results, for our money, in the industrialized world. Yet the consensus solution for decades has been to throw more money at the problem. Politically, it's safer for a politician in this country to cheat on his/her spouse than it is to propose a cut in education spending, or worse, publically state that education is overfunded.

Which brings me to the commercials. Tim Kaine has a clever little commercial that shows a cute lil cake being cut up. With each slice, a voice proclaims that Jerry Kilgore wants to cut this and slash that from the education budget. The first time I saw this commercial, it nearly convinced me to vote for Kilgore, based on that alone. Until Kilgore shot back with a commercial of his own. Rather than have the balls to state that education is overfunded in this state, and making a point that throwing money at the problem has not solved anything for years, he drops the ball and just states that Kaine's record on education isn't too hot either. It represents everything that disgusts me about politics.

Why is it that mainstream politicians feel the need to avoid the real issue when the answer isn't politically correct? Why is it that anyone who does come up with a real solution is some third party whacko with no chance to actually win? Don't answer these questions, because I already know the answer.

Now I can go back to my regularly scheduled not posting for months.

I need a new icon. It's time for the conehead kid to retire.

OMG!! There's a ghost in the John Brown Wax Museum!!!



We went to Harper's Ferry today, obviously, and walked through the wax museum and up to Jefferson Rock. I tried explaining the concept of slavery to Megan, but she was very disturbed by it, and ended the conversation. Erica wasn't feeling well, so we didn't stay as long as I would have liked. More pictures are here, in Erica's journal.

I really should update this more with mundane details of my life.

Lil Jimmy & Me!

( My side was edited out, as I'm not a masochist. )

Holy fuck, those pictures are much bigger than I thought.

I just got back from seeing lil' Jimmy Norton in Falls Church. It was supposed to be one show only, but he ended up doing two, because so many people showed up and he didn't want to disappoint. He's a good egg. Pictures will be coming soon.

I swear to christ if I hear one more fucking ABBA song, I'm going to smash that woman's radio and piss in her face.

GOOD MORNING MR. BREAKFAST!!!

I'm not sure whether to laugh or lose control of my bowels.

I'm listening to the new Nine Inch Nails album right now, hoping it's better than the last full album they put out. Here's my song-by-song criticism, as I listen to it:

1. All The Love In The World - This song stinks. Trent Reznor needs to rekindle his drug addiction if he thinks this song was worth releasing to the public. Towards the end, it sounds like a bad Lenny Kravitz impersonation. I'm embarassed to have listened to that.

2. You Know What You Are - This is much better. It's much faster, and sounds like something that could have been on the Downward Spiral. My anger over the awful first song has subsided.

3. The Collector - Eh, not really that bad, but not really that good either. Not much else to say about this one.

4. The Hand That Feeds - I've heard this one a million times by now. I like it, but it took a while to grow on me. The first half of it sounds better than the second half.

5. Love Is Not Enough - This song starts out really well, until Trent Reznor starts singing. He should have rewritten the first few lines before recording this one. After that though, it gets good. Overall, it's a dark, heavier song; much different from the more pop-oriented songs that came before it. I like this one.

6. Every Day Is Exactly The Same - This one is slower, and has more emphasis on the vocals. Not a bad song.

7. With Teeth - It sounds like he's practicing a televangelist schtick, the way he sings the title line (withah teethah). Other than that, the song is good. It's one of those that stops in the middle and then slowly picks back up.

8. Only - Self-loathing disco music. I suppose it's good, for what it is. Musically, it sounds similar to Marilyn Manson's cover of Golden Years.

9. Getting Smaller - This one doesn't really distinguish itself from all the other pseudo-rock shit out there. I'm guessing Dave Grohl contributed heavily to this song, because it sounds like every shitty Foo Fighters song ever made.

10. Sunspots - Slower song. Not that great. Forgettable.

11. The Line Begins To Blur - This is one of the better songs on the album. It transitions smoothly between distorted guitars and the more melodic chorus. Probably the best song so far.

12. Beside You In Time - This song seems to be building up to something, but can't quite get there. About a minute and a half in, I get the feeling it's going to be a let down. And I was right. It doesn't build up to anything significant. The song is alright, but the structure is irritating.

13. Right Where It Belongs - Here's another one that seems to building toward something that never comes. This one works better though. It's slow, but one of the better songs on the album. A good song to close with.

14. Home - I had a feeling this song would be good, and I wasn't disappointed. Has more of an old-school NIN feel to it. It doesn't appear to be on the track listing, so I'm wondering if it's going to be one of those track 99 songs.

15. Right Where It Belongs (alternate) - This is a stripped-down, softer and darker version of the song. Reminiscent of Hurt.


I'd give the album a B. There were some very good songs, a few mediocre songs, and a couple of shitty songs that should have never been done. It was too "pop" on a few of the songs, particularly the drums. I don't know if that can be attributed to Dave Grohl's influence or not, but it didn't help the album. Trent Reznor seemed to be trying to do things with his voice that he should never, ever, do again. It was better than The Fragile, but not as good as the first two full albums, or Broken.

You can listen to the whole thing here.

I wonder where the legs landed...

It would be great if one of them landed in a crate with a lampshade, and the whole thing was delivered to Darren McGavin's house.

Apparently the government's new plan to save social security is to starve the elderly. Go to http://www.mypyramid.gov/ and enter any age over 80.

I now have one of these lovely little things.